I knew him right when he started his career pitching things at HSN with Orange Glo, selling that as well as a few other products on HSN. Of all the D-List celebrities I met (and I am sure johnec could back me up) at HSN, he was the coolest and nicest. Two stories of him come to mind.

One night I was taking a break and outside smoking. Billy walks up (he and I had a good working relationship because I was in charge of assisting him set up for his shows..that's what Backstage Coordination did back then)while I am telling some people about how I was an idiot and poured an entire thing of cooked rice down my drain clogging my sink. Billy looked at me and said Tony I have exactly what you need. He gave me this device which was like a large suringe and had a plunger on the end. I took it home and sure enough it worked. About a week later he was back selling the same product. This time during the production he starts talking to me while he is live on TV using me as a testimonial for the product.

My favorite memory of bilyl Mays was, I was working in Studio 1 (the biggest studio) one night and I was assisting Billy get ready for his production. The studio was currently live and Susanne Summers was there selling jewelry or some other cheap product. Billy was on the ground huffing and puffing spreading dirt and oil and other stuff right at Susanne feed (you couldn't see Billy because the camera were aimed at their waist up). Billy was jsut working and working and huffing and puffing trying to make the floor as dirty as he could because he was selling some cleaning product. Finally, Susanne Summers said on-ain "Will someone tell this guy to shut up already, I have no idea what he is doing, but he is getting my feet dirty and..." She went on and on just totally belittling Billy. but Billy was cool as ice and simply looked at her and said "I'm working here Susanne, I'm working". He said it calm and cool and that was that. But just seeing Billy Mays and Susanne Summers get into it live in person is something hardly anyone can say they ever saw.